The secret life of Alicia Keys

By Christine Sams

Private and talented, Alicia Keys is living proof that you don't have to be public property to be famous.

It's easy to wonder why Alicia Keys is keen on acting when she has already sold 30 million albums worldwide, stamping herself as a superstar singer of her generation.

But in the new film The Secret Life Of Bees (based on the novel of the same name), Keys convincingly portrays the forthright, talented and distrusting sister, June Boatwright, alongside cast members including Queen Latifah and Jennifer Hudson.

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Keys says the world of film sets is something that strongly appeals to her, after growing up with a mother who was immersed in an acting environment.

"I've always been surrounded by theatre," Keys says down the phone from the US.

"My mother came to New York in the late 1960s to pursue her love of acting. She's always been a major influence with me because I'm her only daughter and she raised me pretty much by myself. She took me to the theatre to see different plays, to see different theatre. It was always a very rich part of my life.

"I always was very much in love with it. I just really loved the way you could transform and become this whole other being."

While Keys is primarily renowned as a multiple Grammy Award winner and soulful R&B singer, the truth is that her acting career has also chugged along nicely since she made her first appearance on The Cosby Show in 1985, when she was four. "Yeah, that was super-great," she laughs.

Keys made her feature-length film debut in the 2007 crime flick Smokin' Aces (with co-stars including Ben Affleck and Ray Liotta) and has since appeared in The Nanny Diaries opposite Scarlett Johansson.

It's clear amid her busy touring schedule (she was in Australia late last year for a highly successful tour including a number of open-air vineyard shows) that Keys is carefully choosing projects that will further enhance her skills as an actor.

"It's always about the right timing, the right themes and the right situation," she says. "When I started to get into film, I really wanted to do things that were unexpected for me, different from what people might imagine.

"Film feels like another outlet, another very creative, wonderful world to discover where I can be someone other than myself and really explore that energy and be empathetic to other people's stories."

Of her visit to Australia last year, she says: "I had a very nice time. It was your summer and I really wanted just to explore it. We went on boat rides and I went on tours and we actually had a nice chance to explore. I climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge, of all things - it was great."

Later in our conversation, it is clear Keys would like a return visit.

"To all my Australian friends, I say hi," she says. "And we'll see you soon."

In the meantime, though, Keys's fans will have a chance to see her transform into June Boatwright on the big screen. In The Secret Life Of Bees, she is part of a strong female ensemble in a film that explores issues regarding race during the Civil Rights era in the US, while canvassing strong themes about motherhood and female nurturing.

"When are you blessed with an opportunity to do a film that really does centre around so many female roles?" she asks. "And so diverse, too - each one was totally different to the next. They were all very strong in their ways - and I loved that."

Keys believes using a female perspective to explore such a contentious and troubling time in US history was vital to the film's success. "I think things get very stereotypical sometimes and you only see one version of a story - I love being able to express this other side," she says.

Keys, who describes herself as "an avid book lover and reader" says she fell in love with the novel The Secret Life Of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, before actively pursuing a role in the film.

"When I started to hear rumblings about them putting [it] together as a film, I just knew I really wanted to be a part of it," she says.

It's yet another achievement for the 28-year-old who appears to have done it all when it comes to conquering the entertainment world. Keys, who still has plenty of creative ambitions, says it's important to stay grounded and authentic in the world of celebrity and stardom.

Despite her wealth and music profile, she says it is through choice she has managed to avoid the world of gossip columns and merciless paparazzi.

She likes it that we know extremely little about her love life and private pursuits - and she wants to keep it that way.

"It's just a choice I made for myself from an early time," she says. "I'm not that kind of person. I'm from New York. I've walked along every street you could possibly walk on.

"I never wanted to be caught up in this world that really means nothing. It's the way I live my life and the places I choose to go - and the places I choose not to go."

Even beyond the drama surrounding Britney Spears and other stars who are always caught up in headlines, Keys believes it is vital not to become too attached to the music industry.

"I just choose to try to stay as close to authentic things as I possibly can," she muses. "Stevie Wonder said a line that I'll never forget. It's in a song of his. He said: 'You're in it but not of it.' The first time I kind of heard that line ... I realised that in the industry I always feel like I'm in it but not of it. It doesn't make me; the fabric of it isn't who I am. I visit it, then I hop out."

Considering the number of awards Keys has won throughout her career - for her albums ranging from Songs In A Minor, The Diary Of Alicia Keys and her most recent, As I Am - it's easy to imagine the singer's shelves at home weighed down with trophies.

Interestingly, she says she doesn't have any of them at home. "The funny thing is I don't really keep them at my house," she says with a laugh. "My manager has a lot of them, my mother has a couple - actually my manager has more than my mother so that's probably a bit off-balance! But I don't really have a shrine room or anything like that."

Keys knows it's a cliche but she says her greatest reward is not only writing and singing her songs for herself but knowing that fans tap into those emotions and relate them to their own lives. It's a responsibility she takes very seriously.

"It's a big honour to be recognised for the work that you do, that's without question," she says. "But yeah, the positives of being able to do it ... first of all to be able to speak to the different truths and the pain and the passions that I'm going through ... but also finding and discovering that's it's a passionate truth so many other people feel as well.

"That's a great reward, especially when people talk about the difficult times in their life and how certain songs helped them through."

Keys says she still relies on music - often songs from other artists - to get her through tough times.

"It's true. I have songs in my life. They help me through at a particular time," she says.

"I know if I feel down, I listen to a certain song and it makes me feel better.

"To know that music has such a positive influence on people like that, there's nothing like it in the world, really."

Despite her level-headed approach to stardom, Keys says she will not censor herself when it comes to sharing her feelings in music, although it's often only after the writing process that she considers the real impact of a song.

"At the time, it's almost like a desperation or a need, so I don't really think about anybody listening to it. Then later on, sometimes I might say, 'Oh boy, what am I going to say when they ask me about that one?"' she says with a laugh.

Keys sounds so relaxed and carefree about herself and her ambitions, it's hard to imagine her feeling cautious or anxious about anything. But she admits she was nervous before filming The Secret Life Of Bees, something she believes was a natural response.

"I think it's always good to be a little nervous ... you know, because nerves just make you reach for the best, I think," she says of her blossoming film career. "But it's very, very similar to music in so many ways in just kind of portraying a performance.